Ravaillac's Assassination of Henry IV in Paris on 14 May 1610 and His Execution
The regicide François Ravaillac is shown in an engraving with the very dagger with which he took the life of King Henri IV in two blows, having leapt onto the step of his carriage, which had halted on the rue de la Ferronnerie in Paris on 14 May 1610. Ravaillac is considered by some to have been a papal agent avenging the entry of French troops into the Netherlands, while others take him for a fanatic acting on his own. Be that as it may, under torture he revealed neither his design nor any possible accomplices. The court sentenced Ravaillac to death by quartering: before his body was torn apart by the crowd on the Place de Grève, he was quartered by horses. The regicide's parents were banished from France for ever, and his other relatives were ordered to change their surname.